Judge of Character

Veronica quickly stepped up as the comforting, caring girlfriend. With an arm around his waist and her head resting on his shoulder, she quietly said, "You did what you had to do. If even a new employee acts up and gets away with it, why would the older, more senior members of your team bother to act appropriately?"

Roland sighed. "You're right… I just thought I had better judgement in people. To think that I'd actually thought of asking her out a couple of weeks ago… I really dodged a bullet there."

Roland laughed and fell into thought.

Seemingly seeing through his thoughts, Veronica asked, "Are you wondering how you can keep someone like that on your team?"

"Yes. For her to speak to me like that and to spout such ridiculous lies about you… she's either unhinged or has some sort of vendetta against you. Can you think of anything you might have done to anger her so?"

After contemplating briefly, she answered, "Not really, except for dating you. You don't think that's what this is about, do you? She's just jealous of us?"

"Hmm," Roland said, "I don't think anyone would act so outrageously because of that… I'll have to ask Barov about it later; he's fairly close with her.

"Anyhow, we should put that version, let's just enjoy lunch."

…

They spent a little under an hour at lunch, after which they headed back to the office.

"I'm rather surprised that you like the ostrich burger there; eating ostrich feels too weird to me," said Roland.

"Ha ha ha." Veronica laughed at him. During lunch, he'd spent most of his time staring at her burger with a confused expression on his face. "It's just the same as eating any other burger. The appeal comes from the fact that it's an animal you wouldn't normally eat. It feels exotic."

"Huh… I understand that, but it just feels weird."

Veronica walked him to the building's foyer, where she met up with her driver. Her driver had waited behind at the Graycastle building; Carter had escorted them. After a quick goodbye, Roland and Veronica went their separate ways.

Roland went straight up to his office. Fortunately, Anna didn't seem to be there, so he avoided an awkward encounter. He still needed time to work out how to deal with her.

Veronica went out of the building with her driver. As he went to get the car, Veronica pulled out her phone to call Nana. This time, Nana picked up.

"Nana," she said excitedly, "you'll be pleased to hear this."

"Yes, yes, I followed your advice. I went into Roland's office and kissed him in front of her."

"Ha ha! That's not even the best part. After—"

"Well, if you'll let me continue, I'll tell you. After that, Anna got upset and shouted at Roland, then Roland shouted back at her; he was furious."

"Obviously, I didn't want Roland to be upset, but this is the lesser of two evils."

Veronica continued to talk down the phone, but unbeknownst to her, Carter was still outside the building. He hadn't followed Roland and Veronica into the foyer before; he'd stayed outside to have a smoke, and naturally, he'd heard Veronica's side of the phone call.

'Why do I keep stumbling upon this sh*t?'